Nancy Crawley: Meet two laid-off Michigan workers who refused to be left behind

Delbridge Langdon Jr. | The Grand Rapids PressRosie Jones, left, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, center, and Grand Rapids Community College President Steven Ender at Grand Rapids Community College attend a meeting with area education and work force training providers Wednesday.When you hear the stories of these former Grand Rapids factory workers, you are reminded of the old definition of courage: Grace under pressure.
Rosie Jones and Dennis Rider were Steelcase employees in their late 40s when their panel-plant jobs were shipped out of the country.

They were dumped back onto the labor market with tens of thousands of other job hunters.

They had to ask themselves a frightening question: Who will hire someone pushing 50 with only a high school degree?

This is when the state's No Worker Left Behind program stepped in, offering them up to two years of tuition to retrain at a local college.

The governor was in town last week to tout that program's success and the fact the federal government is pumping in $38 million to help ease a long waiting list of applicants.

For Jones and Rider, that helping hand still came with lots of unknowns.

Becoming a college student three decades after leaving high school was scary: Could you keep up with younger students? Would you crash and burn, looking foolish?

They gulped and took the leap. Both not only survived, they finished their two-year degrees with honors. More important, both have solid, full-time jobs in new fields.

"I did very poorly in high school," recalled Rider, 48. But the offer of up to $10,000 in tuition was too good to pass up.

"I knew finding a job with just a high school education would be very hard, so I said why not, I took it."

In 2007, he opted for automotive technician training at Grand Rapids Community College. At the time, dealerships were growing and mechanics were in demand, he said. No Worker Left Behind funds have to go toward training for jobs in demand.

But first he had to get up to speed academically. The college's Career Advancement (CAP) Program tutored him on reading, writing and math.

"It was a big help for people like myself to get a foothold," he said.

Taking heavy loads, he finished a two-year program in a year and half. This summer, he was looking for a job.